“Democrats in the chamber chanted ‘shame, shame, shame’ as the final tally was announced,” reports Reuters about today’s “cliffhanger vote held open by Republican leaders until they won,” passing a bill “clearing the way for U.S. oil refineries to expand.” (There’s a CNN video via BradBlog (QT and Windows), but ThinkProgress (thanks, sjct) has the link to American Progress’s C-SPAN video (QT only). This is a far more complete video than CNN’s.)
When over two dozen Republicans initially voted no, DeLay, Barton, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and new Majority Leader Roy Blunt circled the chamber and cajoled the holdouts.
The palm-sweating vote switched from “yes” to “no” several times, but Republican Rep. Mike Simpson, the speaker pro tempore, did not gavel the vote closed until it swung in the Republicans’ favor.
Several Democrats protested that the vote was being held open. “I am informed that every member of Congress who is in town has voted,” Democratic whip Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland said at one point, when the tally was 210 yes, 214 no.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi also complained, saying the proceedings were bringing “dishonor to the House.”
I heard Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) on C-SPAN following the vote, state that the “energy” bill has almost no chance of passing the Senate but the consensus of all the Democrats who spoke on C-SPAN was that civility is gone from a House held hostage by Delay and his minions. Markey said that a number of “moderate Republican” were opposed to the bill because of its environmental consequences. Markey predicted today’s events will mark a “turning ponit” for moderate Republicans.
Raw Story interviewed Nancy Pelosi — who can be heard on American Progress’s C-SPAN video or the CNN video via BradBlog, crying out for a chance to speak. Pelosi said:
“What you saw on the House floor this afternoon was a shameless display of the Republican culture of corruption … the Republican majority will go to any length to satisfy the greed of the energy companies over meeting the needs of the American people.
A vote that was supposed to take five minutes took more than nine times that long because the indicted Republican leader of the House of Representatives needed extra time to twist the arms necessary to pass a bill that is against the interests of the American people, against consumers, against taxpayers, and against the environment.